The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management wants vendor feedback on a potential new contract to provide infrastructure support services at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky.
The request for information/sources sought notice was issued Tuesday by DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center. The Energy Department is in the early planning stages of a potential award for the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO), which manages cleanup at both facilities.
The DOE notice included the standard disclaimer that the announcement is not a request for proposals. Documents released Tuesday did not include any proposed timeline for issuance of a draft RFP. The procurement schedule issued by the Environmental Management office in November said the timeline was still to be determined.
The agency is seeking capability statements from contractors with the ability to provide services that include telecommunications, cybersecurity, janitorial, maintenance of roads and grounds, mail services, and pest control.
Interested vendors are asked to describe how small businesses would perform at least 51 percent of the dollar value of the labor. They are also asked about their experience in collaborating with other government contracts, such as those already on hand at the two sites. Vendors are asked to describe their relevant experience with government contracts over the past five years, and their plans for program management as well as worker health and safety.
The Energy Department seeks a fixed-price infrastructure support agreement, and winning bidders for Paducah would be expected to be part of the multi-employer pension and welfare benefits plans for the existing workforce.
Responses to the RFI should be submitted by 3 p.m. ET on March 5 to Contract Specialist Courtney Stallworth, at [email protected].
Questions on the announcement should be sent to either Stallworth or Contracting Officer Wilmari Delgado, [email protected].
In December, Kentucky-based Swift & Staley won an $88 million, 22-month contract extension to continue providing infrastructure support services at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Its entire contract, valued at $185 million, started in December 2015 and runs through September 2020.
North Wind-led Portsmouth Mission Alliance has a $140 million infrastructure support contract that began in March 2016 and runs through mid-January 2021. The other partner in the contract is Swift & Staley. Portsmouth Mission Alliance is in the three-year base period of the contract, which extends into late April of this year, a DOE spokesperson said by email Wednesday. At that point the DOE would decide whether to exercise a 22-moth option period.
The Energy Department is early in its market research and has not decided if it will issue multiple contract proposals or a consolidated RFP, the agency spokesperson said. The RFI documents do include performance work statements for both Portsmouth and Paducah.
A North Wind Group spokesperson confirmed Wednesday the company is interested in retaining its infrastructure business at PPPO.
A synopsis of the RFI notes the Portsmouth Site is comprised of about 3,700 acres and the Paducah Site about 3,550 acres. The gaseous diffusion plants at both locations enriched uranium first for military uses and later for commercial nuclear power plants. The enrichment plant at Portsmouth operated from 1954 until 2001, while Paducah ran from 1952 until 2014.
More information is available on the DOE website for the solicitation.
